


rhythm games

by SakuraPetal91



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura's POV, Canon Universe, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Light Angst, M/M, the lightest of angsts tbh, these are all platonic except for the small sprinkles of klance i added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-10 17:54:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10443666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakuraPetal91/pseuds/SakuraPetal91
Summary: Pidge finds some rhythm games she used to play on her laptop.





	

**Author's Note:**

> since this is Allura's POV (accidentally, rip me), i think i need to clarify some stuff before i start:  
> Quintant = day  
> Dobash = minute  
> Varga = hour  
> Tick = second  
> Duflax - an altean creature with a beak and webbed feet.  
> Stick out like a shoferiaks nose, faster than an angry clanmurel, linked at the ears like a pack of yellmore = several sayings you hear during the series.
> 
> i thank THIS handy guide to altean for existing:  
> http://sakura-petal91.tumblr.com/post/158706636802/the-fans-guide-to-the-altean-language

"Everyone! Come into the common room, there's something you need to check out!"

  
Pidge's voice boomed loud and clear through the Castle in its entirety, startling Allura from her seat. Confused, she put the Castle on autopilot and stormed into the common room as fast as she could - what happened?

  
Did Pidge somehow find secret coordinates in those strange rectangular pieces of moss they stumbled across a couple quintants ago? The theory was entirely possible, as it had happened before, and some people thought it might be for the best to keep coordinates hidden from anyone not nearly as ingenious as an Olkari... or as Pidge.

  
Or did she somehow stumble upon a distress signal from a planet in danger?? The idea was undeniably possible as well, seeing as the Olkari themselves decided to send their distress signal in space in the form of squishy spores which resembled what the Earthlings liked to call 'snow'... apparently a frozen form of precipitations from Earth? The very idea confused her, but, perhaps, they were as confused about the Altean environment her and Coran liked to remember about as she was about their strange weather and climate.

  
Moving along from what seemed to be forever, Allura stepped into the common room in a hurried step. Her pointed ears twitched as she heard the sound of... music?

 

"Hah! Take that, Pidge!" Hunk's voice boomed from behind a couch.

  
A scoff - from Pidge, Allura guessed - interrupted Hunk's short moment of victory. "I still have 100% accuracy on the entire beatmap, Hunk," she said, and her arms could be seen raising above the couches level in pride. "You only got it 75.7% right! And it's only the easy difficulty!"

  
Allura put a gentle hand on the back of the couch as she took in the sight in front of her, the sight hidden from her eyes by the blue piece of furniture.

  
Pidge, Shiro and Hunk were sitting down in front of the laptop. Hunk and Shiro were standing side by side, with Pidge cuddled in-between their arms. Keith was rather closer than she would have expected as well - he was standing on his stomach, legs dancing in the air, resting his face on his hands as he curiously watched the other three do... whatever they were doing.

  
Looking around, she noticed Coran just now arriving in the room, with just as much confusion and worry splattered along his face as she felt before she arrived. Allura waved at him with what she hoped to be a reassuring smile, and turned the couch around so she won't stand on the cold floor to observe her paladins. Coran seemed to have the exact same thoughts as he sat down next to her, pointing confusedly at the giddy, competitive paladins.

  
She didn't know any better, so she shrugged.

  
Pidge slightly raised her eyes and her glasses reflected off the light of her laptop, making them seemingly an opaque white - a very anime-esque characteristic of Pidge, Lance would sometimes say, and Allura never got the explanation as to why. Her hair seemed to fluff up a little as her shoulders raised in startled surprise for a tick, before she started waving excitedly at her and Coran.

  
"Princess! Coran!!" she slightly giggled, a wide, toothy grin spreading on her small face. "I found some rhythm games on my laptop!!"

  
The Alteans blinked in confusion.

  
"...Rhythm... games... you say...?" Coran repeated in a low voice, voicing her own confusion.

  
Hunk nodded excitedly as he turned the laptop around, ignoring Pidge's chirp of protest. "They're games that we enjoyed playing back on Earth!"

  
Shiro chuckled, low and homesick. "Matt was obsessed about them, so it would've been impossible for me to not have played at least one rhythm game in my life."

  
Him and Pidge took a moment of silence at the mention of the latter's brother, and Allura let her already small, yet confused smile diminish into a sad, slightly pitying smile at their faces, stuck in a grim sort of frozen happiness, with a dim flicker of homesickness.

  
At that last chain of thoughts, Allura faltered a bit as she realized...

  
She felt like something was missing - like it was more quiet than usual, far too quiet, but she couldn't quite pinpoint the missing piece in the final image from the common room.  
Now that she knew, though... she was curious, and slightly worried.

  
"Hunk," Allura spoke up, concern unintentionally laced in her tone, "where might Lance be?"

  
At this, they all froze in their spots. They all seemed shocked, but Hunk's facial expression and discomfort stuck out like a shoferiak's nose.

  
"Hunk, is there something you have to tell us?" she spoke in what the paladins liked to call, the Space Mom voice.

  
Hunk violently flinched at this, and scuttled a bit closed to Pidge. Fidgeting, he kept opening his mouth, as if to say something, then snapping it shut again. He was looking ridiculous.

  
"Hunk?" Shiro joined, worry dripping from his words. "Is something wrong with Lance?"

  
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed movement and a flash of red.

  
"Keith!" she protested, rising from the couch and resting her hands on her hips. "Where do you think you are going?"

  
Keith glanced at her and turned to slightly, but not completely, face her. She crossed her arms, scowling at the defiant paladin.

  
"Where is Lance?" she demanded, clenching her fists. "He is usually one of the first to show up when it comes to your Earthling games and traditions!"

  
Allura may not be the closest to her paladins. She was harsh and probably too stern sometimes, which may have caused a slight distance to exist between her and them, she did not understand all, if any of their Earth jokes and references, and even though they understood each other, as the Castle's translator was picking up their language and translating it into whatever they could understand, sometimes it felt like they could never understand each other.

However, if there was one thing she will always be certain about, is that they all not only suffered from homesickness, but her, Lance and Coran were the most sensitive about it.

  
Her and Lance might not be on the best terms, and neither were trying to make this better, seeing as the universe wasn't in danger if they weren't linked at the ears like a pack of yellmore, but she was more than certain both of them would jump at any opportunity to talk about or interact with things from home.

  
That was exactly what made the situation so confusing to her. While Pidge never was explicit about her announcements unless the situation was dire, most of the times she called them in the common room it was for bonding moments between her and the other paladins, nostalgia, and also to show her and Coran some of their past-times as humans. Surely he must have realized that, or one of them must have told him about it.

  
...From the hesitant and frozen looks on their faces, she has guessed wrong. They look like they forgot he existed!

  
Allura huffed and turned around, already heading for the door. Hunk quickly stood up and caught her pinky finger, stopping her from moving.

  
He bit his lower lip, inching closer to her, searching for words as if they were splattered on the words, waiting to be arranged in the pattern he was wanting to form.

  
"Princess, Lance..." he started, but then stopped, steeling himself as he moved his awkward hold on her pinky to gingerly hold her hand, trying to keep her in place. "Rhythm games are something very important to Lance, I-I..."

  
He stopped again, unsure what to say. A curious glance at the other paladins told Allura all she needed to know.

  
They were afraid of making him emotional, weren't they?

  
A grim smile made its way onto her face, enough to make Hunk clutch onto her hand more.

  
"Keeping such an important thing from him is not beneficial at all," she spoke, firm and loud. "I'm speaking from experience here. You will only make him more upset if you keep such a thing from him."

  
Hunk visibly winced at that and finally let go of her hand. She turned around to fully face them and crossed her arms over her chest. Keith seemed to have returned to sitting on the cold floor - how the humans could bear that, she could not understand.

  
"Well, someone will have to go get him," she announced, slightly raising an eyebrow at them.

  
Keith never rose his hand quickly, it seems. A silent chuckle escaped Shiro, while Pidge gave him what seemed to be a knowing smirk.

  
Allura gestured for the door, and Keith ran faster than an angry clanmurel out the door in what Pidge had previously described as... Naruto run? Possibly a form of sports on Earth. Allura wasn't sure, the paladins seemed to be taking advantage of her lack of Earthly knowledge sometimes.

  
Actually, they probably were. She made a mental note to ask Shiro about serious definitions - Pidge and Lance were the group's jokesters, or, as Keith and Hunk sometimes said, memers. Their word might not be entirely accurate.

  
***

  
Allura's ears twitched, picking up a distinct footing approaching the common room while Pidge was quickly hitting four specific keys on the laptop's... keyboard, was it called? While with the other hand she moved what they called the 'cursor' or 'mouse' across the screen, all in a very specific rhythm, her fingers so quick they were starting to resemble a Duflax's feet if she were to stare at them for more than a few dobashes.

  
Lance's loud, hearty chuckle startled them all as he walked in the common room, side by side with Keith, who looked offended and... unexplainably red-faced.

  
"Oh my God, dude, you couldn't even get 60% on the easy difficulty??" Lance spoke in one short breath, before dissolving into a mess of giggles. "I don't even know what game, but... the easy difficulty??"

  
Keith lightly punched him, his face getting redder by every tick that passed by. "It's hard to keep track of the hit arrows, okay?!"

  
Lance put a hand on Keith's shoulder for support and buried his face into the nape of his bare neck, trying to calm his laughter and obviously completely failing, while Keith visibly flinched, his mouth pursing into a painful half-scowl, half-smile.

  
Pidge did a gesture Allura recognized as what Lance usually did, the 'finger-guns', towards Keith and then raised an arm to wildly wave at Lance, who only now just noticed the other paladins' presence in the room and grinned happily at them.

  
"Lance!!" Pidge savagely screamed, raising her laptop in the air with its screen towards him. "We got rhythm games!!"

  
At this, Lance's eyes widened impossibly wide, and his face broke into a majestic toothy grin as he whooped, made a strange dance, violently hugged Keith and ran towards Pidge at an unimaginable speed, leaving Keith dazed and confused.

  
"What games??" Lance demanded, making his way in-between Shiro and Hunk and right next to Pidge in front of the laptop.

  
Pidge smirked confidently and started scrolling through a list.

  
"We've got Beatcraze, TapMania 5, Rhythm Paradise and Ozu!," she quickly spoke, and Allura smiled at how Lance's eyes lit up more and more with every strange name.

  
"Did you play Ozu! yet??" he grinned, rubbing his hands together.

  
Pidge smiled widely back. "These two nerds over here tried it and failed miserably," she snickered, pointing at Keith and Shiro, who pouted, looking away from Lance and Pidge's amused eyes.

  
"It's not like you could do better, Lance," Keith grumbled, at which Shiro and Hunk shrugged.

  
"I haven't seen him play Ozu! ever, only TapMania," Hunk admitted. "I always tried to avoid game nights with Lance's family, man - they're savage."

  
Lance ignored them as he turned and opened Ozu!, and carefully scanned all the beatmaps Pidge had installed - around 10,000 beatmaps in total. Pidge raised a curious eyebrow at him, seemingly amused by him.

  
"What is your best accuracy at this one?" he abruptly asked, and a silence fell over the room as everyone waited for Pidge's response with bated breath - well, everyone except her and Coran, they were mostly confused and curious.

  
Pidge glanced at the beatmap the cursor was pointing at and slightly adjusted her glasses with a neutral expression.

  
"The 8-star one for Earthquake?" she hummed. "Didn't play that in a long time. Around 94%."

  
Keith and Hunk were making the cross sign, Keith muttering 'patience yields focus' under his breath, Hunk silently whispering what sounded like prayers, and Shiro looked like he needed to take a breath and drink a little water before he faints. A short glance at Coran and a hum and Allura was sure - that was very, very impressive.

  
Lance put a hand on his chin, unaffected by this apparently impossible feat, and made a short sound of acknowledgement.

  
"Okay, but," he started, and turned around to fully face Pidge, "what if I were to bet half of my portions of Hunk's amazing food for a whole month on me beating said accuracy?"

  
Hunk's expression turned from slightly panicked to full-blown panic, Keith started muttering prayers in Hunk's place, and Shiro looked close to fainting. Apparently, Allura deduced, this was more than impressive - this was nearly impossible, if she were to judge by Pidge's rapid typing from before Lance joined them.

  
Pidge snorted. "And if you supposedly win?"

  
Lance leaned in, a grim smile on his face. "Then I'll be allowed to borrow your laptop to draw whenever I feel like it."

  
They all ignored this rather interesting statement - that Lance can draw - in favor of the question hanging above everyone's heads: has Lance officially gone insane?

  
Pidge froze for a tick, a scowl adorning her features, before a wide grin spread across her lips. She leaned in as well, her glasses reflecting the light of her laptop screen, momentarily looking borderline evil as she slowly extended her right hand.

  
"I'll only accept if we both try with the hidden mod at least once," she said grimly, despite the grin on her face.

  
Lance nodded and shook her hand firmly and solemnly, the smirk on his face ruining the heavy, somber atmosphere their voices and actions created. "We'll have four tries then," he spoke, his voice booming over the silence that settled along with Pidge's request.

  
"May the best Ozu! player succeed."

  
***

  
Only a few dobashes passed since their strange tournament has started, yet it felt like ages. Only one player can play at a time, so it was Pidge's first round, with no mods on, as she declared - after Lance has checked with Hunk twice to see if she is cheating, knowing how sly she tends to be. Her fingers were firing at ungodly speeds over two specific keys at the very bottom of the keyboard, while she quickly moved her cursor left and right, from place to place, to hit what were known as the hit circles. They all decided to change their placement to be behind Pidge and Lance, not only to see if she were to cheat, but to also see what exactly this game is about and possibly how they are supposed to do this.

  
Seeing how fast Pidge was going, Allura was wondering... how was Lance supposed to beat Pidge's... 'accuracy'? She was known as the resident tech genius for more than one reasons, and one of those reasons is the fact that she types quick as 'a flash of ligthning' - another strange Earth phenomenon, the paladins explained to her.

  
Not that she doubted Lance's abilities - he was a perfectly good paladin in his own right-, but... Allura is pretty sure he might be biting off more than he can chew this time.

  
Finally, after around 2 more dobashes, Pidge's round was over. She cracked her knuckles and slid over to the other paladins, throwing herself on Hunk's back with a mischevious grin.

  
_**94,87% accuracy** _

  
Lance headed over to the laptop, sat down and cracked his knuckles and neck. Hunk and Shiro were watching with distressed expressions, Keith seemed neutral, with a tad of worry in his eyes, and Pidge was watching with a calm grin.

  
They were sure he'd lose, Allura deduced.

  
A glance at Lance was all it took for her to understand that he was aware of that, and also decided to ignore it. He clicked on the 'Play again' shining in random nuances of blue and red, intertwining in places in fascinating shades of purple, his fingers hovering over the same two keys as he circled the cursor around, waiting for the slight introduction of the song to be over.

  
A few ticks passed and the 'SKIP' button vanished. A short moment passed, and she became aware that they were all, except Lance and Pidge, holding their breath. The first hit circle appeared, and...

  
It took everyone around 20 ticks to process everything. Lance hit every single hit circle with 100% accuracy so far, mouth slowly curving into a smirk. Pidge fell off Hunk's back with a loud, incredulous protest that he's cheating, while everyone else let a proud smile spread on their faces.

  
"You're cheating!!! That's not fair!!!" yelled Pidge as she batted his hands away from the laptop.

  
The screen almost instantly showed a pitiful GAME OVER in black and white, and Allura felt a twinge of annoyance hit her. He was doing so well!!

  
"You're cheating," Pidge declared, and went to close the game.

  
Hunk came and raised her by the armpits, an uncharacteristic scowl on his face.

  
"Pidge, he did not cheat," he insisted, slightly leaning in.

  
She struggled in his hold, screaming various insults targeted at everything and everyone.

  
"Yes he did! There's no way he could play that!!" she protested.

  
Keith put a hand on the top of her head, attracting her attention.

  
"Let him prove he didn't cheat, then," he said slowly, the edge in his voice warning.

  
Pidge's scowl further deepened at that as she tried to slap Keith.

  
"How would you know, you can't even pass a 1-star beatmap with simplifying mods!" she spat out, continuing to wildly struggle in Hunk's hold

.  
Keith scoffed softly and rolled his eyes, ruffling her hair to further irritate her.

  
"We checked more than once to see if you were cheating," Shiro said from his quiet corner. "He deserves at least that much."

  
Pidge crossed her arms over Hunk's, pouting defiantly. Allura decided it was time for her to step in - she really wanted to see what accuracy Lance would end up with compared to Pidge, and she won't be denied of that short moment.

  
"Pidge, Shiro is right," she spoke in the most neutral voice she had. Pidge's eyes widened as she turned her head around to avoid her gaze. "You had the right to be checked in case of cheating. Lance has the same rights as you."

  
With one last pout, Pidge rested her head on Hunk's large hands and nodded, defeated. Allura gestured for Lance to step towards the laptop, and Hunk chose a random beatmap - apparently, a 7-star one, not very far from the one they were supposed to play. Pidge berated them to activate the hidden mod - whatever that meant, and Lance was left alone as they waited for the beatmap to properly start.

  
An ear-splitting song started, and Lance once again surprised them by hitting almost every hit circle with perfect accuracy. The song was a fast-paced one, with different ups and downs and no second of break in-between portions of it. The song lasted for 4 solid dobashes, and Allura was sure that if she were to try that, her hand would go numb after the first dobash and a half.

  
He finished with 98.78% accuracy, and officially beat Pidge's record on that song - which wasn't part of the bet.

  
Pidge stood shell-shocked behind Lance, staring at the new accuracy replacing hers at the top of that song's top 10. Hunk went and high-fived Lance, Keith complimented him with only 4 stutters in his sentence, while her, Shiro and Coran sent him approving smiles and nods.

  
Then, they all turned to Pidge for her opinion. She let a few ticks pass before making a waving motion towards the laptop, seemingly uncaring, and plopped herself atop Hunk's head. Lance grinned widely and clicked the beatmap, starting again from the beginning.

  
Painful dobashes passed by, and finally the song came to an end. Lance slid away from the laptop next to Keith , Hunk and Pidge and let his final accuracy shine on the screen.

  
_**95.03% accuracy** _

  
Hunk let out a whoop of happiness and Keith patted Lance's shoulder with a proud, yet reserved smile. The others, including her, let their approval be known out loud.

  
Pidge, however...

  
...she was smiling. Widely.

  
She rolled down from Hunk's secure back and marched towards Lance with a thumbs up, a fire in her eyes.

  
"You know what, nerd?" she spoke obnoxiously loud, grinning and jumping to pat his head. "Forget the bet, now I have some actual competition for fu-"

  
Hunk and Shiro coughed painfully, interrupting her upcoming word. Allura guessed with a giggle that it was the Earth equivalent to 'quiznack' - they never really talked about swears -, and made a mental note to try and use it in later conversations. Allura always proved to be quite the potty mouth, but who can blame her? And who even cared anymore, other than Shiro?

  
She giggled silently at the thought as she watched the paladins happily speak about the strange game that Lance and Pidge seemed to be champions at. Apparently such a feat would be acknowledgeable on Earth if they bothered to participate in contests, which is apparently something Lance never tried, since he preferred competing against his family and friends - and usually defeating them, it seems. Curious, she decided to engage in conversation, and even try the game herself. She could do it!

  
***

  
A few vargas later proved that she, on the contrary, could not do it. She couldn't even pass the beginner's difficulty!

  
Well, that's what she gets for complaining out loud about the paladins' performance at the gladiator all the time...

  
With a soft sigh, Coran sent them all to sleep - too much time has passed already, it seems, and Allura and Coran prepared a lot of training for the paladins for the next quintant.

  
The mice cuddled in bed next to her back, and she breathed in the remaining scent of Altea on her sheets.

  
Maybe she would try again to pass that game...

**Author's Note:**

> in case ur wondering, ozu is osu. idk why i tried to change its name, also the other games aren't real, i just mashed some funky words together and BAM rhythm games.
> 
> hope u liked this... thing tho


End file.
